


Dine 'N' Dash

by nctpowers



Category: NCT (Band), NCT 127 - Fandom, NCT Dream
Genre: M/M, also has a lot of conflicting emotions, hyuck doesn't like trouble, hyuck hates jocks??? but doesn't really know why, hyuck is !!! angry, jaemin likes to annoy hyuck, mark is just . trying his best, mark means well but it doesn't translate very well, mark n jaemin hang out with a questionable crowd??, mark tends to find himself in trouble, maybe ??? some nomin, not sure yet lmao
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2020-06-03 03:15:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19455187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nctpowers/pseuds/nctpowers
Summary: donghyuck, who worked at a restaurant as a busboy, was forced to train two of the boys who attempted to dine and dash on a saturday night - both of which he found extremely annoying (and maybe one of them was cute, too).





	Dine 'N' Dash

Donghyuck sighed as he wiped down the counter, wondering whether keeping this job was truly worth it. Working on a Saturday night was not something he looked forward too. Partly because that meant that his friends were doing something without him (most likely watching some terrible reality television show, criticizing every single person who showed up on the screen), but also because that meant the restaurant would be busy. Instead, he was watching over all the tables of the quaint little restaurant filled with groups of friends and families, who were enjoying their meal for a night out. He sports a sour pout, puffing out his cheeks as he watched everyone else having fun, wishing the tables were turned and he was the one with company. 

Being a busboy was not a glamorous job. Usually, it involved Donghyuck wiping down sticky tables with a ton of residue left from half spilled bowls of rice. He had to scrape gum off the bottom of both the tables and the seats, which made him gag. It disgusted Donghyuck to the point where he seriously considering handing in his resignation letter, but times were tough for him financially and he really needed the money. He had both rent and tuition to pay and unfortunately, the banks weren’t going to accept his good looks as payment. 

His old job wasn’t much better - for two years he worked at the local pet shop, spending his days cleaning up dirty cages and giving baths to various pets. Although he loved animals, he thought any job was going to be better than that. Donghyuck kind of regretted his decision - he missed playing with the little puppies on his breaks (and that was the only thing he missed). Besides, he didn’t understand who would purchase pets when they had animals that needed rescuing in shelters?

“Donghyuck! Table two needs to be cleaned, there's a group of seven waiting to be seated!” Donghyuck looked at his manager, Johnny, and nodded his head in understanding. He quickly finished scrubbing the table he was working on and placed all the dirty dishes in the sink of the busy kitchen. He grabbed seven sets of cutlery and placed them on the table. 

Donghyuck watched from behind the counter as the group of rowdy boys went to go take their seats at the table he just prepared. He noticed how they all seemed to be wearing sport uniforms - although he wasn’t able to specify for which sport exactly. It didn’t matter though, because Donghyuck absolutely hated jocks. 

To Donghyuck, jocks were nothing more than boys with some sort of weird superiority complex. Just because they had coordination with a ball or a wooden stick, didn’t make them any more worthy than others. In his opinion, school’s (especially university’s) put a way too big an emphasis on sports, when in reality they didn’t matter. Where was the school pride for science students, like Donghyuck?

The boy pushed the negative thoughts out of his mind, not wanting to get distracted from the table he was cleaning. He usually didn’t let things that didn’t involve him, affect him. He didn’t know why he was so annoyed by the mere presence of an athlete. Ever since he was young, his father wanted him to play sports. He was constantly told that that’s what mattered, and nothing else. His father didn’t take into consideration to how Donghyuck loved the sciences more than running around and kicking a ball. He never listened to what he wanted, and he was never going oto. All the angst he felt towards sports was most likely due to his annoyance towards his father, and some pent up emotions. 

“Are you okay? You’re scrubbing the table pretty hard. Did it piss you off or something?” His coworker, Jeno asked wearily, carrying plates he had picked from the table next to him. Donghyuck sighed and nodded his head, immediately lifting his cloth from the table.

“I’m fine.” Donghyuck stated simply. He didn’t want to talk about it. Something so trivial as student athletes wasn’t going to ruin his shift. His coworker looked at him wearily, almost as if he didn’t believe him. 

“Whatever you say, then.” Jeno shrugged at the weird behaviour of his coworker. “There’s a spill on table seventeen. A kid dropped their ramen.” 

Donghyuck groaned at the news, didn’t parents teach their children any manners? He knew it was wrong to get mad at a child, but it was hard when he was left to clean up the mess they made. Was it so hard for their parents to help clean up the mess? The majority of the time, they just say back and watched him clean. It pissed him off. 

Nonetheless, Donghyuck walked over to table seventeen. A forced smile on his face because he was in customer service and it was necessary. This time, the mother seemed remorseful from the actions of her child, which was a pleasant surprise. He hummed as he cleaned up the mess and wished the mother and child to have a good rest of their meal. 

“Donghyuck,” His manager Johnny called and he turned the corner. He was holding a clipboard and didn’t look too excited to see him. Donghyuck’s eyes widened at the serious tone of his usually happy manager, he instantly put down the dirty napkins from the table and smoothed out his black apron. He wasn’t even going to lie, Johnny was intimidating him. 

“Yes, Johnny?” 

“Please, follow me.” Donghyuck gulped, unsure of what the issue was. He hadn’t done anything wrong, per say, besides the one time he yelled at a customer for touching his butt without permission. He figured that was well justified, so why did he feel like he was going to get scolded. 

Donghyuck followed the older boy to his office in the back of the restaurant, becoming more nervous with each step he took. He really needed this job, how was he supposed to pay rent if he got fired? Would he have to live on the streets until someone else hired him? Was anyone going to want to hire him? Perhaps he was getting ahead of himself, but Donghyuck wasn’t able to help but overthink. “Is everything okay?”

They turned the corner into the office, and Donghyuck was surprised to see two boys who seemed to be about his age sitting in the chairs opposite Johnny’s desk. He noticed how both of them seemed to be from the group of jocks he’d seen earlier, and tensed his jaw. The two boys had their gaze fixed on the ground, not lifting their heads when they’d entered the room. It made Donghyuck uneasy.

One of the boys had light pink hair, while the other had what seemed to be dyed blonde hair. The one with blonde hair was wearing a pair of silver delicate silver framed pair of glasses - which Donghyuck thought was a juxtaposition to the dirty sport uniform he was wearing. 

“You’re fine, Donghyuck. It’s them that’s the issue.” His boss sneered, looking over at the two boys. “They thought it was funny to try to dine and dash at my restaurant! Their little friends got away but I managed to grab both of these ones by their collar before they could leave.”

“Dine and dash?” Donghyuck repeated, unsure of what that had to do with him. Johnny looked at him expectantly. Was he supposed to scold them? He turned over to the two boys, and awkwardly placed his hands on hips. “Uh, don’t do it again I guess?” Donghyuck had tables to clean, he didn’t know why he was wasting his time in the office with a situation he had no part of nor control. His boss rolled his eyes and put his hand on Donghyuck’s shoulder. 

“That wasn’t what I wanted you to say Donghyuck.” Johnny looked at the younger. “Since they thought it was a good idea to not pay for their meal and claim they didn’t have the money for it, they’re going to work it off.”

The boy with pink hair shot up his head at the mention of the word ‘work’. “Excuse me, I don’t think-” He scoffed, but Johnny just lifted a finger to cut him off. Donghyuck widened his eyes. He’d never seen Johnny this upset, or this serious. 

He knew how much this restaurant meant to Johnny. He took a chance when purchasing it straight out of college to pursue his dream of opening up his very own place. Donghyuck had been here from the very beginning - when they had only a handful of customers. Now, this place was always busy. So he understood the heart and soul Johnny put into these four walls, and thus understood why he was so offended about a prank played by idiotic teenagers. 

“It’s either you work for this restaurant to pay off your tab, or I call the police. I noticed you both have soccer uniforms on from Hangyang University and it would be a shame if I called the headmaster to let him know two of his prized soccer players were thieves and criminals, wouldn’t it?” Both the blonde haired boy and pink haired one both looked at each other in shock. Although Donghyuck wasn’t able to hear what they were thinking, he knew they both were probably worried about their ‘athletic career’, which made him roll his eyes. 

Donghyuck discretely nudged his boss, and whispered: “Isn’t that blackmail?”

“Shut up, Donghyuck.” He whispered back. Johnny looked at the two boys who were sitting in front of him. “Here’s how it’s going to work. This is Donghyuck,” Johnny pointed, and he awkwardly waved. “He’s going to train you—”

“I’m going to what?”

“He’s going to show you the ins and out of this place. Luckily, I needed two more busboys. One of you will be focusing on tables and the other will be focusing on washing the dishes.” Johnny continued. Donghyuck stared wide-eyed at his boss. How was he supposed to train these two boys by himself? He barely had the time to focus on his own work, now he had to focus on three times the workload?

“I… am?” Donghyuck replied, confused. 

“Boys, introduce yourself to him.” Johnny said, looking at the two boys sitting down. Donghyuck felt very uncomfortable. He hated the attention that was all on him. 

“Uh, I’m Mark.” The one with blonde hair and glasses said, getting up from his chair. He awkwardly placed his hand out for Donghyuck to shake, but didn’t get a response. Mark slowly brought his hand back down slowly and nudged his friend, who didn’t seem to be paying attention to the conversation. 

“I’m Jaemin.” The other said, clearly not enjoying the small talk. Donghyuck decided to ignore his prissy attitude and just look back at his boss, Johnny, who was looking at the boys. 

“Sir?” The blonde boy raised his hand slightly. Donghyuck scoffed at his action. Everything those two boys did annoyed Donghyuck. In fact, their mere presence was something that annoyed Donghyuck. “I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but the meal was like sixty bucks at the maximum, how long do you plan to make us work for you?”

Donghyuck wasn’t able to believe the audacity of the boy with bleached blonde hair. Although, he didn’t expect a more intelligent question from someone who literally broke the law. This was one of the many reasons why Donghyuck wasn’t able to associate himself with student athletes, their minds just seemed less developed. Donghyuck knew his thoughts weren’t exactly nice, but his experiences with every athlete he’d encountered didn’t leave much of an impression. 

“Mark, do you think before you talk or does bullshit just come out naturally?” Donghyuck snapped, immediately placing his hand over his mouth as if he was in shock of the words that escaped his mouth. He didn’t mean to say that out loud. Johnny looked at Donghyuck with a strange look, almost as if he didn’t think he had it in him. Mark looked confused, not wanting to make eye contact with the boy who had just insulted him. 

Donghyuck hated to admit it, but he felt a little guilty for snapping at the boy. No matter how dumb the question was, Donghyuck didn’t want to be rude, especially to someone he was going to be working with for a while. He mentally scolded himself for his actions, even though Johnny was probably going to question his attitude later.

“I think what Donghyuck meant to say was that I think you are in no position to ask questions of that sort.” Johnny reassured both Mark and Jaemin, who both looked rather uncomfortable. “You guys should be grateful I’m giving you a job here scrubbing tables. At least when you’re here you’d be able to keep your positions on the team, rather than watch from the bleachers for the rest of your university careers.” 

“Yeah, what he said.” Donghyuck mumbled, his face heating up from embarrassment. Donghyuck bowed slightly to the two boys and looked over at his boss, who was about to continue what he was saying until Donghyuck interrupted him. “It’s really busy and Jeno is out there alone, I really should be going to help him clean the tables.” Johnny nodded in response, and Donghyuck hurriedly made his way out of the office back into the dining hall. 

Donghyuck picked up one of the empty bins and a fresh rag, and walked to one of the empty tables in the corner that was yet to be cleaned. He sighed as he saw the spilt kimchi all over the top of the table and the seats. Did customers know that food was supposed to go in their mouths, and not on the furniture? He must’ve groaned too loud, because the customers who were seated at the table to the right eyed him weirdly. Donghyuck muttered a quiet ‘sorry’, and finished cleaning up the table quickly. 

As Donghyuck was walking back towards the kitchen, his coworker Jeno joined him on the familiar path. “Dude, are you sure you’re okay? Did Johnny take away your raise or something? You look mad stressed.” 

“I honestly would’ve rather he took away my raise.” Donghyuck groaned, placing the grey bucket on the counter next to the sink. “That would be much, much less painful.”

Jeno shook his head. “You’re being dramatic, Hyuck. I bet it wasn’t that bad.” He placed his grey bucket that was full of dirty dishes beside the one Donghyuck had just placed.. 

“You’d be surprised.” Donghyuck huffed. He knew he was being dramatic, he knew that it probably wasn’t as bad as he thought it was. Jeno just chuckled at his response and started unloading the dirty dishes into the sink. Donghyuck leaned against the metal counter and tilted his head back in defeat.

“I have to train two guys who are absolutely clueless about the busboy world.”

“That’s what you’re annoyed about? Let me remind you, I had to train you when you first got here, and it wasn’t that bad! All your achievements are technically due to my awesome training.” Jeno joked, playfully shoving Donghyuck with his hip as both of his hands were in the water of the sink as he cleaned dishes. Donghyuck smiled at his friend, and rolled his eyes.

“Don’t forget how I had to save your ass one time when you accidentally tried to clean a table with vinegar instead of the cleaning solution.” Donghyuck shuddered at the memory of the stench of vinegar that didn’t come off the rags, no matter how many times they washed them. Jeno scoffed, pretending to be insulted.

“I’ll have you know, both of the bottles looked the same!” 

“You should wear your glasses more often. The two bottles couldn’t be more different, Jeno.” Donghyuck laughed. He was glad to have a coworker like Jeno; one who always made him laugh but kept him on his toes, as well. 

Jeno and Donghyuck often hung outside of work, either going to grab a meal after their shifts (they were absolutely sick of the restaurant food), or just resting at Jeno’s apartment when his roommate wasn’t there. Their friendship was nice, and Donghyuck hoped they’d grow closer. 

“Fuck off,” Jeno laughed, a bright smiled displayed on his face. Donghyuck noticed how his face was always bright, despite his mood and he absolutely adored his eye-smile. Donghyuck noted how Jeno slightly reminded him of his cat. Donghyuck placed a hand on Jeno’s shoulder and was about to make a slightly insulting (but funny nonetheless) joke, when someone cleared their throat. 

“Am I interrupting something?” Donghyuck turned around to see one of the boys from earlier, Jaemin. He rolled his eyes at the sight of the boy with bright pink hair and crossed his arms. A smirk appeared on Jaemin’s face. “Please, control your excitement. I can’t take it.” Sarcasm laced his voice, which only pissed Donghyuck off more.

“You’re not interrupting anything,” Donghyuck started. “Don’t you have a debt to pay off? Or are you here to just annoy me?” Donghyuck didn’t know what had gotten into him. Why was he so mad whenever one of the two boys spoke to him? Jeno must have sensed that something was off, because he looked at Donghyuck, then to Jaemin with a confused look on his face.

“Uh, I guess I’ll show you around, then.” Jeno said awkwardly, clearing his throat and turning off the sink. As Jeno dried his hands, he looked at Donghyuck with a questioning expression, to which Donghyuck just pursed his lips. “Follow me.” 

Jaemin followed Jeno out of the kitchen. As soon as both boys exited the room, Donghyuck let out a sigh he wasn’t aware he’d been holding all that time. Usually, Donghyuck didn’t get irritated this easily, so what was happening? Donghyuck ran a hand through his silver hair, and slung one of the clean hand towels over his shoulder. 

He was unsure why the presence of the two boys struck such a nerve with him. Even if they didn’t speak, Donghyuck got visibly annoyed, which was (mostly) unlike him as he mostly shielded his emotions in front of the world. He groaned at the thought of having to be around them more often, knowing it would probably be even harder to contain the explosive attitude he’d gained around them.

He told himself it was only for a little while, that once they’d done their duties they’d leave and he’d never see them again. That gave him hope, solace, even. The thought that once Johnny would have been satisfied with their work, the two boys would walk out the door and never come back.

He just hoped to whatever God was listening, that Johnny wasn’t going to make them stay for very long.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you if you've read the first chapter!! I hope u guys are excited for this as much as I am!!! :D
> 
> if u have any questions, my twitter is @ nctpowers and my curious cat is curiouscat.me/nctpowers ~~


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